How much revenue is lost to the Indian Railways every year with free passes and also decide who gets to travel free and why on our expense

The recent hike in rail fares in India have been discussed, analysed, commented, and largely decried by many. To be fair to all concerned, a random check on leading opinion makers and decision influencers shows that almost all of them have not travelled on a train, after buying their own ticket with their own money, in a long time. Travelling for a holiday in AC Chair Car on Shatabdi Express type trains does not count, incidentally, because it does not reflect the realities. As a long time railway fan, frequent train user, and also as one who has grown up in railway towns, I would like to make the following suggestions to help the Indian Railways generate more revenue.

# Charge a premium for 1AC (first class air-conditioned) at the time of general booking itself, instead of keeping them "on hold" for a variety of priority quota type passengers. Passengers, who travel 1AC, would easily pay a premium of, say 50%, over the basic fares for this;

# Stop including water & foods in the ticket prices and charge for all meals and beverages supplied. As it is, the food quality is dropping on a daily basis. Besides, many regular travellers choose to bring their own food. Also, thanks to mobile phones, fresh hot meals are now being delivered on platforms at your window all over the country;

# Charge for refundable deposit on every item sold on trains, platforms or railway stations, which comes in plastic or similar packaging. The refund can be collected at the destination station. Or a whole new "system" will form where travelling salesmen and vendors would do instant refunds at a slight discount. This will solve multiple issues of garbage disposal as well as cleanliness;

# Utilise land banks blocked off for decades, on account of patronage all over the country. Make the list transparently available on the Indian Railways website. This could be combined with building vertically on railway stations to provide commercial space for internal usage as well as for rent to private organisations. Some of the old colonial era bungalows could be let out as heritage hotels, while the railway officials could reside in apartments;

# Place advertisements inside the passenger coaches. The external parts of the coaches are already being used for advertisements;

# Give some serious competition to the parcel and courier business by encouraging more trains with mixed parcel van and passenger coach configurations, like the Sampark Kranti express trains;

# Scrap the dreams of high speed trains on the same tracks used by goods trains and normal trains. More time and money is lost than is earned in blocking paths for overtakes. Rationalise all MPS (Maximum Permitted Speeds) to 110 kmph or 130 kmph until the slower trains can catch up. Otherwise fresh lines need to be laid;

# Charge extra for lower and upper berths as compared to side berths (present in 2AC, 3AC/3-tier) and middle berths (present in 3AC/3-tier). A lower berth can generate a premium of at least 50%, and an upper berth of at least 25%, over the standard fares.

# Take all railway saloons, including the one lying unused at State Entry Road for post funeral trips to Allahabad, and place them up for rent as either static hotels or for travel-by-anybody who can pay. It is estimated that with the growth in number of railway zones, there are about 360 8-wheeler saloons lying ready for this purpose on an all-India basis. Each one is fitted out better than the other.

The railway ministry should also make the whole system of free passes and travel transparent. For instance, how much revenue is lost to the Indian Railways every year with these free passes? Likewise, the users ought to know who gets free travel passes and the reason why.

The railway ministry should also explain to us why trains which show up as fully sold out, and booked months in advance, actually end up running with empty seats, made available for the highest bidder. Regular travellers are not blind or foolish either.

An increase in prices appears to be inevitable. An increase in inefficiency is not. The Indian Railways do a wonderful job of knitting the country together, but they also need to be more transparent in the way they go about this, and the above steps, which may not raise much by way of direct revenue, will certainly help in getting an understanding from us users of the real issues.

Otherwise, it appears like the behaviour of a monopoly—prices will be increased because they can increase them.